Retirement Home Building Progress

The craziness has begun!  I spent the Labor Day weekend and the following weekend sorting and packing part of my house for the HOA re-piping that will occur for me on 10/25.  There’s a little left to do, but only because it’s lightweight stuff from under the sinks in the downstairs bathroom and the kitchen that I’ll be using along the way.

This week Wednesday was the first of the cataract surgeries.  As of now (Friday, 8 pm), I can read the crawlers on the bottom of my 32-inch TV without glasses and without difficulty.  The doctor seemed pleased with the healing process and said that the only thing he doesn’t want me doing is heavy exercise (tennis, running, swimming, etc.)  I was pleased with how easy an experience the surgery actually was, and how quickly I felt as if I was truly healing.  There has been no pain other than a slightly scratchy eye.  Light is much brighter than it used to be, and I’ll rely heavily on dark glasses.

The next hurdle is one I had not expected — a small growth on my eyelid needs to be biopsied, and may be a skin cancer.  The biopsy will be done this coming week, and if surgery is required, it will be fit into the calendar along the way — it’s on the same eye as the one that was operated on on Wednesday, so there’s no conflict with continuing this process as needed.

I’m hopeful now that the next couple of months will progress as easily as this past week has done..  I’m still a bit buried, but no longer as overwhelmed as I was when I last wrote about all of this.  I have lots of help, both at home and with transportation to and from appointments.

On Monday, August 21, 2017 there was a solar eclipse which, in some locations along a path across the US.  Where I live, the eclipse was at approximately 60.4%.  A neighbor across the street and I had talked about this a week or two ago, and decided we would repeat an experiment that we had done the last time there was a partial solar eclipse.

Before I show any photographs, a word about the quality.  Our viewing screen was a sheet hung from the top of the garage door across the street from mine.  The projectors (we had two) were mirrors — one a compact-sized mirror, and the other about 12 inches in diameter.  The result of this arrangement was far from perfect, but gave a good idea of the crescent of the eclipsed sun.  The larger mirror didn’t work as well as the smaller one, perhaps because of a beveled edge.  The sheet was pretty tight as it hung, but there was a zephyr of breeze that also affected the photos.  And in editing the photos, the computer looks for something that could be sky and makes it sky-blue, then filling other colors as them make sense to the computer., thus a blue sky created from a white sheet!

Our projectors were set up as the eclipse began.

And the system was checked out and the aim adjusted — we had to continue adjusting the mirrors as the sun moved through the sky.

The following are a selection of images projected onto the “screen” over the 2-1/2 hours of the eclipse — even the landscapers got into the spirit!

The seeming “double exposure” was probably generated by the thickness of the mirror — we noticed it in many of the photos.

We wondered whether the texture of the sheet made a difference to the quality of the pictures — the best way to tell was to hold up a piece of cardboard.

It didn’t seem to make much difference!

Along the way, we noticed that the light became dimmer than normal (as if there were clouds or a smoke cloud in front of the sun), it became much quieter, the birds stopped flying and chirping (and the crows stopped squawking!).  A few people walked by us with their dogs — two stopped to watch with us, and some simply walked along, glancing to see what we were doing.  It was an unusual, but most effective, way to watch the eclipse.  The next one with totality that will be visible from the US will be in 2024 — I hope I’ll be around to watch that one!

First, more hydrangeas.  These flowers are just coming towards full bloom — they will be bright blue by the end of the week.  I think they are just as pretty now, and wanted to post these photos while I have time to do it.

Time is moving VERY fast for me these days.  In the next couple of months, I must move out of half my home so the HOA can complete a re-piping project, have two eye surgeries (cataracts), visit my sister in Santa Barbara for her 75th birthday, and I have two other medical appointments that are follow-ups from last spring!  If I seem absent of short along the way, please excuse me — it will be a tough time to get through!  Once this siege is over, life should settle back down to a dull roar, and I’ll be able to try out my new eyes and play with the camera more again.

The past month has been a little busier than usual, with lots of things happening.  First, the “Whittier Fire”  west of Santa Barbara is still 87% contained, with the remaining 13% along a rocky steep ridge that the firefighters can’t get to.  There were Sundowner Winds predicted for last evening, but they apparently did not materialize — if they had, the fire would have burned much farther down the hill towards the ocean.

The last time I photographed the hydrangeas along my front walk, I believe there were two flowers in bloom, and a bunch of buds.  Those have all bloomed, and I took the following photos a few days ago, just before I cut off the dead-heads.

There are a few more buds, and the 2 flowers that still have color were spared for now.  It has been close to 100 degrees today, and will continue this hot for a few days, so I  don’t have great hopes for more flowers — but stay tuned!

Today has been very hot and humid — there have been lightning strikes in the area, which is quite unusual for this area.  They even had to evacuate 8 miles of beach at Huntington Beach this afternoon, along with a surfing contest, due to the lightning.  At one pint, I walked outside my front door and shot the next 3 photos — on the other side of the house, the sky was blue!

During the month I had visits from three good friends.  A Xanga friend (Trish Ambrose) who used to live in Pennsylvania and now in Oregon was in town with her husband for a conference — they called and asked if I had time to see them — we had a delightful dinner on the edge of the Marina at Dana Point Harbor.  And a colleague who moved from here to South Carolina about 10 years ago was in San Diego for a national financial aid conference, followed by a weekend visit with relatives.  She stopped off along the way for dinner as she traveled between San Diego and LA.

In the midst of all this, it was the time of the year when I have all my annual doctor’s appointments within the month.  I am fine — all tests came back normal except one which will be redone in 3 months — but that takes a lot of time that I would rather use for fun things.  I will try to post a little more frequently from now on.

The Whittier Fire near Santa Barbara remains much as it was yesterday morning, with the exception that the fire is now 25% contained (in part by Lake Cachuma and the main highway).  The sundowner winds did not materialize, and there has been a good marine layer overnight to dampen the fuels.  Losses in this fire are massive, but still no reports of injuries.  The Boy Scout Camp has been virtually destroyed, and the Whittier Camp lost structures as well.  Closures and evacuations remain as they were.  The fire will burn for a long time in what is mostly wildland, much as its neighbor, the Sherpa Fire, did last year.  As a result, I’ll stop the daily updates unless there is something significant to report.

I had another quick note from Zakiah this evening — she is back in the US.

She had suffered a heart attack, and was in the hospital in London.  She had an angiogram and angioplasty there, and came home with medications.  She is now seeing a cardiologist at home, and commented that she’s glad to be back at home and that the best health care is “right here in the good old USA.”  She will try to post something in the next few days, but for now is quite tired and getting a lot of rest.

Part 1 of this post was originally posted on Word Press on July 8.  As you read through this, I am adding two updates -- I will try to duplicate future posts as I write them, but I've had computer issues for the last couple of days, making this a bit difficult.

One of the consequences of heavy rains in Southern California is the potential for serious wildfires.  The rain would seem to be a help in the prevention of fires — on the contrary, the rain causes the growth of grasses and brush (do you remember the green hillsides from my previous posts?).  The grasses stay green for up to about a month, after which they dry out with the warmth of the late spring weather, and by now they are usually very dry (thus the term “tinder dry”).  Any small spark can cause the outbreak of a major fire, particularly in hot, windy, dry weather.

There are currently two serious fires in Santa Barbara County.  The first broke out on Thursday afternoon — by Friday morning it had burned 3,500 acres, and by this morning the number was 19,000 acres.  It is still around 20,000 acres, with only 10% containment.

This afternoon a fire broke out across the highway from the dam at Lake Cachuma.  This has the potential of being a very serious fire, making national news.  It has burned on both sides of the highway– the road that we travel every time we go to see the lake.  It began near a summer camp, and there are a number of camps in the area.  There is also a juvenile correction facility a short distance upstream from the lake.  This afternoon, there was an immediate mandatory evacuation of about 20 miles of the valley, though some of the campers were temporarily stranded and “sheltered in place.”  The campers have now all been evacuated from the area, and were taken out of the valley to the Solvang area downstream from the dam.

The fire is burning uphill, and may have actually crested the mountains.  The last time this happened, the fire burned into the City of Santa Barbara — there is the potential for this fire to do the same.  The area is known for its “Sundowner Winds,” strong downhill winds that blow for a couple of hours beginning just after nightfall.  If these winds arise, you will undoubtedly read/hear in the morning that fire has reached either Santa Barbara or Goleta.

I am not in Santa Barbara this week!  I am currently safe at my home, about 200 miles away.  I have many friends and relatives in Santa Barbara, though, and am seriously concerned for their safety.  I don’t think the fire will actually burn into Santa Barbara, but it could easily burn into Goleta, the city’s northern suburb.  I’m far enough away that I won’t be able to watch this on television, but will stay in close touch with family and friends, and will post an update tomorrow.

Sunday, July 9

On Sunday morning, less that 24 hours after it began, the “Whittier Fire,” so named because it began near Camp Whittier near Lake Cachuma, is still raging on.  It was apparently sparked by a car fire on the 2-lane, forested portion of the highway  past Lake Cachuma.  As of 8 am today, it had burned 7,800 acres, and was 0% contained.  All 90 children, 50 camp staffers, and countless firefighters who sheltered in place at one of the camps have been evacuated safely.  The fire crested the mountain, and flames were visible from Isla Vista, in the western part of Goleta.  Today is predicted to be another hot (100 degrees), dry (15% humidity) day, with winds up to 12-15 mph — not an easy day for firefighters.  They are diverting equipment and personnel from another fire farther north to help fight this fire.  It sppears now that, if it actually comes down the mountain, it will miss most of the developed part of Goleta, burning towards a less developed area between Goleta and El Capitan — but winds and fire are fickle, and anything could happen!  The air quality in Santa Barbara is terrible, and friends tell me there is ash all over everything.

As of now, my plan is to spend a few days in Santa Barbara in about 2 weeks — hopefully by then the fire will be contained and it will be safe to be in the area.  I am fortunate to be flexible enough to delay that trip if necessary.  For the next couple of days, my computer will be in process of a major upgrade — I’ll update when I am able, and will add updates to my comments

Monday, July 10

The Whittier fire is stil growing — this morning it has covered 10,800 acres, and is only 5% contained.  Twenty structures have been destroyed, mostly at one of the camps near where the fire started, and 3,500 people have been evacuated.  The new acreage is to the west of the burned area, on the front (ocean) side of the mountain.  Photos of the burn area are really devastating.

The heat has dropped about 10 degrees since yesterday, and the winds are down.  They did not have ‘Sundowner Winds’ on Sunday evening, allowing the sea breezes to head the fire uphill and back on itself for the evening.  However, the terrain is extremely inaccessible, particularly on the front side.  Fortunately, both sides of this fire on the front side have been involved in serious fires within the last couple of years, which has depleted the source of fuel.  On the back side of the mountain, the fuel, mostly oily chaparral  has not burned for 62 years.  The highway from Santa Barbara to Lake Cachuma and Solvang is still closed, and they expect to keep it closed for several days.

Hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate so the firefighters can get a handle on this fire.  Meantime, the Alamo fire, farther north, is still out of control, and there is a new fire, the Butte Fire, broke out yesterday north of Sacramento, along with the myriads of small fires.

For those of you who know her, I had a quick note from Zakiah last Wednesday, asking me to let you know that she has been busy and couldn’t get on WordPress.  Coincidentally, my computer has been down, and I have not been able to rep-post it until this evening  She wrote from the train to Chicago, on her way to London.  She wanted you to know that she’s not ignoring you, and that she will return in July and will answer all your comments.

Last week I had a visitor from Arizona.  Gary (aka righteousbruin) was on a quick trip to collect a small amount of sea water as a gift to a grieving friend, so we met at the Crystal Cove Cottages for lunch and a walk on the beach.  It was a warm day, and the cafe is always busy — we had a wait of about 20 minutes for a table, so spent that time walking along the cottages to see how they had fared through the winter.  It’s been 2 years since I’d been there, and there has been considerable degradation due to weather and neglect during that time.

Crystal Cove is a State Park.  The cottages were erected in the 1920’s and 1930’s by ranch hands on the Irvine Ranch as weekend cabins.  The Ranch allowed its workers to build here, using whatever materials they wished (including driftwood, pieces of wrecked ships, etc.).

When the ranch was subdivided and developed, the workers were allowed to remain in their cottages until the area was donated to the State in 2006, which decided it would be best to renovate them and make them available as vacation rentals for all the citizens.  The workers were evicted, and funding was sought to renovate the cottages.

We walked the undeveloped portion of the ‘colony’ first, to the west of the cafe.  This group of cottages have been unoccupied and unmaintained for several years, awaiting funding and permission to rebuild.  The State Coastal Commission has finally granted permission, which will now allow for the cottages to be demolished and rebuilt; funding is ongoing through a special Foundation.

In the meantime, they have been blueprinted, so that the reconstruction can be done in a manner to preserve the ambience of the area.

As we walked back, our buzzer called us for lunch.  We sat at a nice table on the patio, looking out at the beach and the sea, watching the day go by as we chatted and caught up with each other’s news.

After lunch, we wandered along the beach in the opposite direction.  These cottages on the southeastern side of a small stream were renovated early in the process, and have been used by renters for several years.  They may be rented for a week at a time, and the waiting list is at least 6 months long.  Crossing the stream,

we followed the beach past several more cottages.

and meandered down to the waterline.

We found shells embedded in rocks,

and gifts of feathers lying on the sand,

and enjoyed a short walk along the beach.

The visit ended with a walk back to the cafe and up the canyon a short distance, where we caught a tram to the parking lot.  It was a delightful day, and I was honored to be along on Gary’s quest to find a jar of sea water!

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This is copied from a WordPress post that I posted several days ago -- my computer has been on the fritz since then, and I was unable to duplicate it here.  We have since had a heat wave and lots of brushfires, and the temperatures have calmed down somewhat.  Tomorrow, July 4, will be nice, and then we will have another heat wave on its way!

Last week I had a visitor from Arizona.  Gary (aka righteousbruin) was on a quick trip to collect a small amount of sea water as a gift to a grieving friend, so we met at the Crystal Cove Cottages for lunch and a walk on the beach.  It was a warm day, and the cafe is always busy — we had a wait of about 20 minutes for a table, so spent that time walking along the cottages to see how they had fared through the winter.  It’s been 2 years since I’d been there, and there has been considerable degradation due to weather and neglect during that time.

Crystal Cove is a State Park.  The cottages were erected in the 1920’s and 1930’s by ranch hands on the Irvine Ranch as weekend cabins.  The Ranch allowed its workers to build here, using whatever materials they wished (including driftwood, pieces of wrecked ships, etc.).

When the ranch was subdivided and developed, the workers were allowed to remain in their cottages until the area was donated to the State in 2006, which decided it would be best to renovate them and make them available as vacation rentals for all the citizens.  The workers were evicted, and funding was sought to renovate the cottages.

We walked the undeveloped portion of the ‘colony’ first, to the west of the cafe.  This group of cottages have been unoccupied and unmaintained for several years, awaiting funding and permission to rebuild.  The State Coastal Commission has finally granted permission, which will now allow for the cottages to be demolished and rebuilt; funding is ongoing through a special Foundation.

In the meantime, they have been blueprinted, so that the reconstruction can be done in a manner to preserve the ambience of the area.

As we walked back, our buzzer called us for lunch.  We sat at a nice table on the patio, looking out at the beach and the sea, watching the day go by as we chatted and caught up with each other’s news.

After lunch, we wandered along the beach in the opposite direction.  These cottages on the southeastern side of a small stream were renovated early in the process, and have been used by renters for several years.  They may be rented for a week at a time, and the waiting list is at least 6 months long.  Crossing the stream,

we followed the beach past several more cottages.

and meandered down to the waterline.

We found shells embedded in rocks,

and gifts of feathers lying on the sand,

and enjoyed a short walk along the beach.

The visit ended with a walk back to the cafe and up the canyon a short distance, where we caught a tram to the parking lot.  It was a delightful day, and I was honored to be along on Gary’s quest to find a jar of sea water!

 

Moving on from the pronghorn exhibit, we walked to the elephant enclosure.  On the way, we ran across a couple of interesting birds — one a resident, and the other possibly an interloper.  The resident, a Secretary Bird, was fascinating as it sat on its nest.  The other, a magpie that looked as if it may have flown in or a visit with Mme. Secretary!

The feathers of the Secretary Bird were intriguing, and showed themselves off in all poses.

And the magpie, more familiar to all of us in North America, has beautiful feathers as well.

Turning and walking a short distance, we passed tapirs and capybaras.

A couple of sleepy lions.

Llamas and alpacas

And the elephant enclosure.

On the left you see a glimpse of the area where the elephants are bathed and their feet are inspected and groomed.  The bars keep the animals enclosed while the keepers do their work through the bars.  We watched one elephant walk up to the enclosure as if waiting her turn, while we could hear the keepers washing down another elephant in a different section of the exhibit.

By this time, the animals were all moving indoors, and we could only see empty exhibit areas.  The keepers were preparing the enclosure for the next day, placing food in bins for the elephants, and adding enticing nibbles to hanging logs to keep the animals curious and alert.

We had hoped to take the sky tram back to the entrance — because of construction, the path was closed, and we had to walk all the way back past the elephant exhibit!  One more elephant caught my eye,

And I couldn’t resist the meerkat protecting its hole!

This was a wonderful visit to a world-class zoo — we were tired, but very satified by the time we left.

Moving on from the pronghorn exhibit, we walked to the elephant enclosure.  On the way, we ran across a couple of interesting birds — one a resident, and the other possibly an interloper.  The resident, a Secretary Bird, was fascinating as it sat on its nest.  The other, a magpie that looked as if it may have flown in or a visit with Mme. Secretary!

The feathers of the Secretary Bird were intriguing, and showed themselves off in all poses.

And the magpie, more familiar to all of us in North America, has beautiful feathers as well.

Turning and walking a short distance, we passed tapirs and capybaras.

A couple of sleepy lions.

Llamas and alpacas

And the elephant enclosure.

On the left you see a glimpse of the area where the elephants are bathed and their feet are inspected and groomed.  The bars keep the animals enclosed while the keepers do their work through the bars.  We watched one elephant walk up to the enclosure as if waiting her turn, while we could hear the keepers washing down another elephant in a different section of the exhibit.

By this time, the animals were all moving indoors, and we could only see empty exhibit areas.  The keepers were preparing the enclosure for the next day, placing food in bins for the elephants, and adding enticing nibbles to hanging logs to keep the animals curious and alert.

We had hoped to take the sky tram back to the entrance — because of construction, the path was closed, and we had to walk all the way back past the elephant exhibit!  One more elephant caught my eye,

And I couldn’t resist the meerkat protecting its hole!

This was a wonderful visit to a world-class zoo — we were tired, but very satisfied by the time we left.

Continuing on from the bears at the San Diego Zoo, and passing by more plants,

we came across a Meerkat habitat.

Meerkats are a type of mongoose, and they live in burrows.  When there animals out of their burrows, there are always sentinels, looking out or the safety of those who could be endangered by predators.

Around the corner was an exhibit of early American animals, including an enclosure with pronghorns and a camel.  There were three pronghorns, two of which engaged into a dominance match while we were there.

The camel came out, and the pronghorns backed off into a tense truce.

Along the path, more flowering plants.

There was a group of people gathered around a bush -- it took a moment for us to spot the sign explaining this.

Next up -- birds, lions, and elephants.

Last week Thursday, a friend and I visited the San Diego Zoo.  Leaving home in mid-morning for the 1-1/2 hour drive, we arrived just in time for lunch before walking through the zoo -- and, having seen less than half the zoo, we left just in time to join rush hour traffic!  This the first of two or three posts about the collections of this zoo.  The zoo is very proud of its collections, not only the animals, but the plants as well --I'll include some of the plants as we walked along the way.  First a hibiscus that caught my attention alongside the path.

Our first goal was lunch -- we didn't dally, but paused to see if there were any gibbon apes outside.  The animals in most of the displays have the option to be outside on view or indoors away from view.  There were only a couple of apes outside enjoying the cloudy and slightly breezy day.  A mother lay in her hammock with her baby, and two other apes were out in the display area.  These shots are fairly heavily cropped, and don't all show the scope of the enclosures - the zoo is excellent in its provision of sufficient space and natural habitat for the animals.

There was a white bird of paradise along the path.

And this was the view from my chair in the restaurant, a copy of what I imagine a Southern plantation house to be.

Bottlebrush,

a chestnut tree,

bananas,

.

and ginger graced the path as we headed to the bears.

There were sun bears and several others along the way.

And our goal in this area was the pandas -- there were two out on display.  This zoo is one of several working with China to display and propagate pandas.  There have been several born here, each of which returns to China at age 4 years to join the conservation efforts of the Chinese.  They grow all the bamboo that the pandas enjoy for their meals!

Moving on, we passed some sleepy grizzly bears

and other black bears.

Finishing up this section, I spotted an artichoke -- just one more plant in the collection.

In future posts, we'll see meerkats, pronghorn antelopes, some interesting birds, lions, and the elephant enclosure.

Late last week, I visited Dana Point Harbor

I needed to get out of the house, and wanted to see if any birds had returned to the eucalyptus trees where they nested a couple of years ago.  Several of the trees have been trimmed, and a few are no longer there at all.  Most of the nests have fallen, or been blown out of their perches, or perhaps disappeared with the trees that were trimmed.  I did, however, see a couple of bids, and spent a few minutes watching them.

And here's the other bird, sitting on a nest.

It's good to have even a couple of birds in these nests, and hopefully there will be a few more as the summer progresses.

Once I was home, it took a couple of days to settle in.  When I went outside, though, I found my ‘pet’ yard lizard had come to greet me.  It’s hard to see in this shot, but the lizard was inside the screen door, near the top!

A second shot shows this animal in much better light (I used the flash for this one).  I was intrigued by the length of its fingers and toes and its tail!

Still at the top of the inside of the door that night, the lizard had wedged its nose into the door frame.  I left it there, and by morning it was still there, but curled around as if to climb down.  After another hour or so, the lizard had climbed down and gone back to its proper home.

 

During early May, there is a professional bicycle race, the Tour de California, which follows a route from Sacramento to the coastal towns of Central California, through Santa Barbara, and on through San Diego.  The Tour is patterned after the Tour de France, with flat runs, mountain runs, time trials, etc, and it lasts several days.

I had arranged to have lunch with a friend at a favorite spot in Montecito.  The night before, I realized that the Tour would go right past that restaurant, and make getting there rather difficult, with closed roads and added traffic.  In a quick phone call, we changed the location of our lunch.  I arrived a few minutes early, and asked if I could sit on the patio and wait for my friend — the owner suggested that I take the front corner table, as the cyclists would be riding right past!  I had misinterpreted the route, and picked a restaurant that I thought would be out of the way!

As the race began near the beach, and the policemen blocked the roads —  my friend had not yet arrived.  There were several team support cars that drove by.

I realized that my friend’s car was across the street — maybe they’ll let her through (she’s in the first car visible behind the CHP patrol car across the street).  And then the bicycles began to come through.

That seemed like a small group — I later learned that there had been an early breakaway, and the bulk of the riders were still on their way.  There was a gap that seemed to be several minutes long.  It was then that I realized that my friend was in the first car that didn’t get through before the racers came — there she is in the car next to the CHP car!

The patrolman finally explained to her that the rest of the race was soon on its way, that they would go through very quickly, and then she’d be able to go.  She commented that that was good, because she was meeting a friend (me) for lunch across the intersection.  His response:  “Oh dear, I hope she’s not eating in front of you!”

More team cars went through.

And then the race whooshed past,

followed by a fleet of ambulances.

And the race had gone by — it’s finally lunchtime!

The race continued, and the breakaway group was never reeled in — they were the winners for that stage of the days-long race.  The racers passed the intersection in just a few seconds, with a large whooshing sound as they displaced the air and drafted each other.  And we laughed about having the good fortune to accidentally watch the Tour de California!

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For those of you who follow me both here and on WordPress, this was posted on WP this morning.  I have duplicated it here for those who may not follow on WP.  The format is a bit different -- at least all the photos transferred in this direction!  I'll continue to post on both sites for a while.

When we visit the lake, there are several places to enjoy a nice lunch.  On this particular day, it was windy, and we decided to have lunch indoors at a favorite place beside one of the Alisal golf courses outside Solvang.  As we drove in, it was evident that the golf course has sprung back to health following the spring rains -- last time we were there, the fairways and greens were brown and dry.

The grasses on the hills have dried out already, but the oak trees are green and beautiful, and there is once again a feeling of life on the hillsides.

From the inside, this shot of the restaurant patio caught my eye.

Andd the grounds were maintained with some planted flowers among the natural growth of the area.  This little flower caught my eye -- I think it's a type of white geranium.

Note: this post is a duplicate of one I posted earlier this evening on WordPress.  Eugenia has updated my account for another year, and  I can continue to post here -- however, to  maintain new friendships and contacts made on WP, I will copy posts there as well.  Please feel free to comment on either page (or both).

As I usually do when in Santa Barbara, last week I took a day trip to visit Lake Cachuma.  The lake level was at 7% in November when I was last there -- it's risen to 47% now, thanks to one day of very heavy rain in March!

I have posted photos on WordPress, learning how to use that blogging site, and refer you to the site at the following link. https://slmret.wordpress.com/.  This site expires on June 2, and I have not heard back from Xanga regarding extending it, so my future posts will be available at that site, and you can subscribe to them by clicking on the "follow" button on the lower right side of the site.  I look forward to seeing you there.

For the last couple of months, I have been asking the Homeowners Board to consider replacing a hedge that runs between my front walk and my neighbor's, as they had left it when they replaced most of the others in the neighborhood.  The hedge in question has been getting pretty ratty looking, and some of that has been covered up by spreading ivy up the stems of the hedge!

In contrast, this is a hedge across the street that remains in place -- it is full and looks like a hedge.

Finally this week, the  hedge has been cut down and replaced with plants that will grow into a hedge with low-level plants along the edge of the walkways.

I am hopeful that this will help the community maintain its cared-for appearance!

Meantime, the hydrangeas inside my fence are really doing well this spring, thanks only to the rain.  There are lots of buds, and the first flower is in bloom.  This is the view from my front door.

It's finally spring weather, which in Southern California means sunny, breezy, not too hot or cold, and no threat of rain.  A friend and I had talked about visiting the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad for some time.  We had driven past it, and had even scheduled such a visit -- three times we had to cancel for one reason or another.  We had scheduled a trip last week Monday, and cancelled because they close on Mondays, so this week we scheduled it for Wednesday.  It was a beautiful day, and the traffic was not bad -- we reached the area in time to have a nice leisurely lunch before heading to the museum.  Once inside, I did take one photo, but put the camera away -- the light was insufficient for natural light photos, and I don't like to disturb other people with flash photography inside a museum.  The result is a little blurry, since the camera was handheld and required a longer than usual exposure.  This shot gives an idea, though, of what we were to see for the next couple of hours in the museum.

The museum included many guitars and brass instruments, sprinkled with a few woodwinds and other instruments.  The instruments were displayed in sections of 30 year spans, beginning in the early 1800's, and in each section were short (1 minute) clips of recordings of the music of the era, tracing popular music through the decades.  It was fascinating, and well worth the time we spent there.

Directly across the street is the top of the Flower Fields.  We didn't spend the time or money to enter the fields this time, but this is the location where they grow ranunculus for flowers and for salable corms.  They plant the corms in rows of color, and at this time of year it is very spectacular.

Below the Flower Fields are an outlet mall, a restaurant row (where we ate lunch), and infrastructure for the cities of Carlsbad and San Diego.  The tower is part of a power plant.  Just below that and to the right is a new desalination plant which will provide 1/3 of the fresh water used by San Diego.  We drove past the plant, to see how bad it looks -- we could hardly see it from the main road a block or so away.  There are two low 'towers,' and on one side a fairly large lagoon provides the salt water for the plant.  It doesn't look bad at all!

In previous years, I have walked the fields, getting closer to the flowers, but have never taken a ride on the wagons -- after sitting in the car, and standing for some time at the museum, this looked tempting!

It was a wonderful spring day, and I hope now to do many more of these 'joyrides.'

When we get a lot of rain all at once, strange things happen.  One is that the retirement home I'm looking at lost about two months of construction time, all in about 3 days!  They are doing major grading in the hillside, but they had lined some "holes" with plastic to prevent pooling and flooding.  There was some pooling before the big rains.  They now are having to spend time re-compacting some of the earth, and turning a lot of soil to help it dry out!  It's all beautifully green, though, and I took a few more pictures last week to update:

The first two shots are the view from below the location of the complex.  On the left, there is a new road being built, linking this area to San Clemente and the waterfrong activities there (just a little south of Dana Point).

And the rest are of the area being graded.

For some of these photos, I was standing in a parking lot for a community park that will be used for horse shows, etc., and for other civic events.  The parking aisles are delineated by orange trees -- young trees at this point, but they grow quickly!  The hillsides are emerald green right now -- they are prettier than I remember for quite a while, and with more rain predicted for the coming week, they should stay beautiful for longer than usual!  It's a very pretty spring here right now!

After two months with at least a sprinkle of rain every day, the sun finally came out to play around the First of March!   When it did, it was apparent that the hills and any place where there had been brown grasses had turned green with all the rain.  I took the camera out for a ride, with the idea of taking green photos -- the green is a bright spring emerald green these days!  The locations of these photos are all places I've been many times before -- those who have followed me for any length of time will recognize them.

Looking over the edge at the canyon below.

At home on this particular day, the sky was a brilliant blue.  When I reached the coast highway, one side remained blue, and the other was shrouded in thick soupy fog!  The next two shots are of Dana Point Harbor from the top of the hill (can you see the breakwater in the right side of the next shot?).

And it wasn't possible to see the inland side of the marina!

In the spring after a rainy winter, we often see lots of wildflowers.  They usually begin with yellow daisies.

First, as an update to my last post, Oroville Dam is still intact, and the spillways are still damaged.  The lake has been lowered by using the main spillway as much as they dared -- the secondary spillway is no longer being used, and they have been working feverishly to repair the damage so it could be used again if necessary.  They are waiting until after this weekend's storm (which began today) to stop the flow on the main spillway enough to assess the damage.  Meantime,  today's storm has caused creeks to overflow, seriously flooding the city of San Jose, south of San Francisco.

Southern California received more rain last weekend. causing major flooding in the coastal southern half of the state.  It was also extremely windy, and there were many trees downed throughout the area.  About two blocks from my home, there was a whole row of 35-year-old pine trees -- it seems every other tree was blown over!  It's not safe to stop and take shots of the trees, but they were big ones, falling over a main road.  I stayed indoors for 3 days -- by the time I saw the trees, they had been trimmed away from the road and the sidewalk, and people had taken some of the movable pieces, apparently for firewood.  I was able to get a couple of shots of damage nearby -- across the road from my home are a couple of visitor parking spaces, marked by a sign -- well, they were marked by a sign:

And in a nearby strip mall, there is/was a realtor's sign advertising the availability of retail space.

Today was the first dry day we've had for several weeks, and the sun was actually shining.  We expect one more day of similar weather, then it will cloud over, and we will have another storm this coming weekend.  Hopefully the next storm will not be as strong as last week's, in which we received about 4 inches of rain in 3 days!

And that leads to another update -- on Lake Cachuma!   As of Monday, the lake had risen 34 feet from it's level measured on 2/16 (in 4 days!)  It  measured 41% of capacity as of Monday, compared to 8% ini September and October!  Unless w have another similar storm, they are projecting that by the end of the rainy seasoon the lake could be at 50% of capacity.   What a difference a day makes!

No photos this time -- but some comments about Oroville.  Oroville is a small (16,000 people) farming community on the Feather River, about 100 miles north of Sacramento, CA.  About 50 years ago, an earthen dam was built on the Feather River, across the street from downtown Oroville.  At 795 feet, this is the tallest dam in the country.  This dam is the source of about 1/3 of the water used in Southern California.  Next to the dam there are two spillways, which allow for the release of water if the dam fills and to keep water from simply spilling over the top of the dam.  The main spillway is concrete lined -- a chute down which water rushes when the dam is full and the gates are open.  The second, commonly known as the emergency spillway, is simply a gate for water to flow out to raw hillside.  Downstream from Oroville, there are major agricultural cities (Yuba City and Marysville) and many smaller ones.  The Feather River feeds into the Sacramento River, which then merges with the American River just outside of Sacramento, and the combined rivers flow to San Francisco Bay.   The lake, which three months ago was the most widely publicized example of a low lake level (the one with the houseboats), is now full and over the weekend they opened the spillway gates on the main spillway.

Northern California has received a great deal of rain and snow this winter, and there is more to come this weekend -- not enough to break the state's drought going forward, but more than one year's average rainfall.  They are calling the rainfall part of an "atmospheric river."  On the radar, it looks like water flowing from a hose from south of Hawaii towards California.

Over the weekend, the lake was full, and the gates were opened to the main spillway to allow some of the water to flow down to the Feather River and to make room for more water running off from previous storms and from the current storm and snowmelt in a month or two.  Very quickly, workers noticed a sinkhole developing under the concrete lining -- this sinkhole has now grown to the size of a football field.  So that they could inspect the hole, they opened the gates to the emergency spillway for the first time in the history of the dam.  This allowed water simply to flow downhill to the river, taking with it whatever was in the way (trees, mud, rocks, etc.  Very quickly they saw erosion developing that threatened the integrity of the emergency spillway gates.  With both spillways in trouble, there was a serious threat of major flooding, and 180,000 people were ordered to leave immediately.

The emergency gates were closed, and the main spillway flow increased.  They are working on a fix for the emergency spillway, dumping 1000 truckloads of boulders every 24 hours into the eroded hole, along with slurry to anchor the rocks and create a smooth surface for the water to flow over.  As of this evening, the risk is reduced sufficiently that the evacuees are being allowed to go home, but with warnings that they may need to evacuate again as conditions change -- weather conditions, dam and spillway integrity, snow melt, river flow, and so on.

Some 20 years ago I lived in Sacramento -- I think that if I lived anywhere downstream from the Oroville Dam, I would go home and pack all my valuables to be ready to leave again.  If the dam or any spillway should break, they are saying that it would send a 30-foot wall of water downstream -- that could reach all the way to Sacramento, and the rivers are already in flood-control condition through Sacramento.  Furthering the dangers, there is Folsom Dam, on the American River, which merges into the Sacramento just outside of town and which is already full.  There is an extensive area which is used for free overflow of the two rivers -- the Yolo Causeway.  When the rivers are high, the gates to the Yolo Causeway are opened and the water flows freely over agricultural land, and down to the San Francisco Bay, about 100 miles away..  Much of Sacramento is below the level of the levees that protect it -- in a worst case scenario, Sacramento could be lost to a break of the Oroville Dam!

All of this is happening about 600 miles north of where I live -- although I am not directly affected by any of it, a break would affect the availability of water in Southern California.  Another 1/3 of the water used in the Los Angeles area comes from Lake Mead -- that lake is precariously low due to the drought, and we are likely to see the allocation reduced in the near future.  Los Angeles has massive water storage capacity, and has been filling the tanks with this winter's rainfall.  Santa Barbara's Lake Cachuma lies in a rain shadow, and has currently reached only about 20% of capacity.  Should Oroville Dam or its spillways have further problems of catastrophic proportions, it would create major problems here in "the Southland."

As Samuel Taylor Coleridge said in his famous poem,

Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.